Шелки
Этимология названия The Scots word selkie is diminutive for selch which strictly speaking means "grey seal" (Halichoerus grypus). Alternate spellings for the diminutive include: selky, seilkie, sejlki, silkie, silkey, saelkie, sylkie, etc. The term "selkie" according to Alan Bruford should be treated as meaning any seal with or without the implication of transformation into human form. W. Traill Dennison insisted "selkie" was the correct term to be applied to these shapeshifters, to be distinguished from the merfolk, and that Samuel Hibbert commited an error in referring to them as "mermen" and "mermaids". However, when other Norse cultures are examined, Icelandic writers also refer to the seal-wives as merfolk (marmennlar). There also seems to be some conflation between the selkie and finfolk. This confounding only existed in Shetland, claimed Dennison, and that in Orkney the selkie are distinguished from the finfolk, and the selkies' abode undersea is not "Finfolk-a-heem"; this notion, although seconded by Ernest Marwick, has been challenged by Bruford. There is further confusion with the Norse concept of the Finns as shapeshifters, "Finns" (synonymous with finfolk) being the Shetlandic name for dwellers of the sea who could remove their seal-skin and transform into humans according to one native correspondent. Гэльские термины In Gaelic stories, specific terms for selkies are rarely used. They are seldom differentiated from mermaids. They are most commonly referred to as maighdeann-mhara in Scottish Gaelic, maighdean mhara in Irish, and moidyn varrey in Manx ("maiden of the sea" i.e. mermaids) and clearly have the seal-like attributes of selkies. The only term which specifically refers to a selkie but which is only rarely encountered is maighdeann-ròin, or "seal maiden". Мифология Шелки — мифические существа из шотландского и ирландского фольклора (в Ирландии их называют роаны), морской народ, прекрасные люди-тюлени. Внешний вид и поведение Внешне похожи на тюленей с карими глазами. Добрые, нежные и грациозные. Тюленьи шкуры позволяют им жить в море, однако они время от времени должны выныривать, чтобы глотнуть воздуха. По некоторым источникам, шелки — потомки людей, изгнанных в море за свои проступки. Вот почему их так тянет на сушу. Могут выходить из воды один раз в 9 ночей. Когда выходят из воды, сбрасывают с себя тюленью шкуру и принимают человеческое обличье, превращаясь по рассказам в темноволосых красавиц или юношей. Если парень или девушка найдёт сброшенную шелки шкуру, то может принудить шелки к супружеству. Дети от таких браков рождаются с перепонками между пальцев ног и обладают целительными способностями. Но такой брак, как и в случае с русалками, часто длится очень недолго. Шелки часто сами ищут себе пару среди людей. Если человек найдёт на берегу красную шапку, это означает, что им заинтересовалась шелки. И если он принимает предложение, то должен выйти на следующий день на закате к берегу, где ему явится шелки. Шелки представляются как миролюбивые и добрые существа необыкновенной красоты, но могут отомстить за обиды, вызывая шторм или переворачивая рыбацкие лодки. Шелки можно вызвать, сев ночью на камень у воды и уронив в воду семь слезинок. Шотландская легенда Many of the folk-tales on selkie folk have been collected from the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland).14 In Orkney lore, selkie is said to denote various seals of greater size than the grey seal; only these large seals are credited with the ability to shapeshift into humans, and are called "selkie folk". Something similar is stated in Shetland tradition, that the mermen and mermaids prefer to assume the shape of larger seals, referred to as "Haaf-fish". Selkie wife and male lover A typical folk-tale is that of a man who steals a female selkie's skin, finds her naked on the sea shore, and compels her to become his wife. But the wife will spend her time in captivity longing for the sea, her true home, and will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. She may bear several children by her human husband, but once she discovers her skin, she will immediately return to the sea and abandon the children she loved. Sometimes, one of her children discovers or knows the whereabouts of the skin. Sometimes it is revealed she already had a first husband from her own kind. Although in some children's story versions, the selkie revisits her family on land once a year, in the typical folktale she is never seen again by them. Sometimes the human will not know that their lover is a selkie, and wakes to find them returned to their seal form.needed In one version, the selkie wife was never seen again (at least in human form) by the family, but the children would witness a large seal approach them and "greet" them plaintively. Male selkies are described as being very handsome in their human form, and having great seductive powers over human women. They typically seek those who are dissatisfied with their lives, such as married women waiting for their fishermen husbands. In one popular tattletale version about a certain "Ursilla" of Orkney (a pseudonym), it was rumored that when she wished to make contact with her male selkie would shed seven tears into the sea. Children born between man and seal-folk may have webbed hands, as in the case of the Shetland mermaid whose children had a "a sort of web between their fingers",25 or "Ursilla" rumored to have children sired by a male selkie, such that the children had to have the webbing between their fingers and toes made of horny material clipped away intermittently. Some of the descendants actually did have these hereditary traits, according to Walter Traill Dennison who was related to the family. Binding rules and sinful origin Some legends say that selkies could turn human every so often when the conditions of the tides were correct, but oral storytellers disagreed as to the time interval. In Ursilla's rumor, the contacted male selkie promised to visit her at the "seventh stream" or springtide. In the ballad The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry, the seal-husband promised to return in seven years; the number "seven" being commonplace in balladry. According to one version, the selkie could only assume human form once every seven years because they are bodies that house condemned souls.20 There is the notion that they are either humans who had committed sinful wrongdoing, or fallen angels. Оркнейские сказки The selkie-wife tale had its version for practically every island of Orkney according to W. Traill Dennison. In his study, he included a version collected from a resident of North Ronaldsay, in which a "goodman of Wastness", a confirmed bachelor, falls in love with a damsel among the selkie-folk, whose skin he captures. She searches the house in his absence, and finds her seal-skin thanks to her youngest daughter who had once seen it being hidden under the roof. In "Selkie Wife", a version from Deerness on the Mainland, Orkney, the husband locked away the seal-skin in a sea-kist (chest) and hid the key, but the seal woman is said to have acquiesced to the concealment, saying it was "better tae keep her selkie days oot o' her mind". However, when she discovered her skin, she departed hastily leaving her clothes all scattered about. A fisherman named Alick supposedly gained a wife by stealing the seal-skin of a selkie, in a tale told by an Orkney skipper. The Alick in the tale is given as a good acquaintance of the father of the storyteller, John Heddle of Stromness. Шетландские сказки A version of the tale about the mermaid compelled to become wife to a human who steals her seal-skin, localized in Unst, was published by Samuel Hibbert in 1822. She already had a husband of her own kind in her case. Some stories from Shetland have selkies luring islanders into the sea at midsummer, the lovelorn humans never returning to dry land. In the Shetland, the sea-folk were believed to revert to human shape and breathed air in the atmosphere in the submarine homeland, but with their sea-dress (seal-skin) they had the ability to transform into seals to make transit from there to the reefs above the sea. However, each skin was unique and irreplaceable. In the tale of "Gioga's Son", a group of seals resting in the Ve Skerries were ambushed and skinned by Papa Stour fishermen, but as these were actually seal-folk, the spilling of the blood caused a surge in seawater, and one fisherman was left abandoned. The seal-folk victims recovered in human-like form, but lamented the loss of their skin without which they could not return to their submarine home. Ollavitinus was particularly distressed since he was now separted from his wife, however, his mother Gioga struck a bargain with the abandoned seaman, offering to carrying him back to Papa Stour on condition the skin would be returned. In a different telling of the same plot line, the stranded man is called Herman Perk, while the rescuing selkie's name is unidentified. Параллели ales of the seal bride type has been assigned the number ML 4080 under Reidar Thoralf Christiansen's system of classification of migratory folktales. These stories of selkie-wives are also recognized to be of the swan maiden motif type. There are now hundreds of seal bride type tales that have been found from Ireland to Iceland. Only one specimen was found in Norway by Christiansen. In the Faroe Islands there are analogous beliefs in seal-folk and seal-women also. Seal shapeshifters similar to the selkie exist in the folklore of many cultures. A corresponding creature existed in Swedish legend, and the Chinook people of North America have a similar tale of a boy who changes into a seal. Исландские народные сказки The folk-tale "Selshamurinn" ("The Seal-Skin") published by Jón Árnason offers an Icelandic analogue of the selkie folk tale. The tale relates how a man from Mýrdalur forced a woman transformed from a seal to marry him after taking possession of her seal-skin. She discovers the key to the chest in her husband's usual clothes when he dresses up for a Christmas outing, and the seal woman is reunited with the male seal who was her betrothed partner. Another such tale was recorded by Jón Guðmundsson the Learned (in 1641), and according to him these seal folk were sea-dwelling elves called marmennlar (mermen and mermaids). Фарерские легенды In the Faroe Islands there are two versions of the story of the seal wife. A young farmer from the town of Mikladalur on Kalsoy island goes to the beach to watch the selkies dance. He hides the skin of a beautiful selkie maid, so she cannot go back to sea, and forces her to marry him. He keeps her skin in a chest, and keeps the key with him both day and night. One day when out fishing, he discovers that he has forgotten to bring his key. When he returns home, the selkie wife has escaped back to sea, leaving their children behind. Later, when the farmer is out on a hunt, he kills both her selkie husband and two selkie sons, and she promises to take revenge upon the men of Mikladalur. Some shall be drowned, some shall fall from cliffs and slopes, and this shall continue, until so many men have been lost that they will be able to link arms around the whole island of Kalsoy, there are still occasional deaths occurring in this way on the island. Peter Kagan and the Wind by Gordon Bok tells of the fisherman Kagan who married a seal-woman. Against his wife's wishes he set sail dangerously late in the year, and was trapped battling a terrible storm, unable to return home. His wife shifted to her seal form and saved him, even though this meant she could never return to her human body and hence her happy home. Ирландский фольклор The mermaid in Irish folkore (sometimes called "merrow" in Hiberno-English) have been regarded as a seal-woman in some instances. In a certain collection of lore in County Kerry, there is an onomastic tale in Tralee which claimed the Lee family was descended from a man who took a murdúch (mermaid) for a wife; she later escaped and joined her seal-husband, suggesting she was of the seal-folk kind. There is also the tradition that the Conneely clan of Connemara was descended from seals, and it was taboo for them to kill the animals lest it bring ill luck. And since "conneely" became a moniker of the animal, many changed their surname to Connelly. It is also mentioned in this connection that there is a Roaninish (Rón-inis "seal island") off Donegal, outside Gweebarra Bay. Теории происхождения Before the advent of modern medicine, many physiological conditions were untreatable. When children were born with abnormalities, it was common to blame the fairies. The MacCodrum clan of the Outer Hebrides became known as the "MacCodrums of the seals" as they claimed to be descended from a union between a fisherman and a selkie. This was an explanation for their syndactyly – a hereditary growth of skin between their fingers that made their hands resemble flippers. Scottish folklorist and antiquarian, David MacRitchie believed that early settlers in Scotland probably encountered, and even married, Finnish and Sami women who were misidentified as selkies because of their sealskin kayaks and clothing. Others have suggested that the traditions concerning the selkies may have been due to misinterpreted sightings of Finn-men (Inuit from the Davis Strait). The Inuit wore clothes and used kayaks that were both made of animal skins. Both the clothes and kayaks would lose buoyancy when saturated and would need to be dried out. It is thought that sightings of Inuit divesting themselves of their clothing or lying next to the skins on the rocks could have led to the belief in their ability to change from a seal to a man. Another belief is that shipwrecked Spaniards were washed ashore, and their jet black hair resembled seals. As the anthropologist A. Asbjørn Jøn has recognised though, there is a strong body of lore that indicates that selkies "are said to be supernaturally formed from the souls of drowned people". В популярной культуре *John Allison’s webcomic Bad Machinery includes a storyline prominently featuring two selkie girls. *One of the main supporting characters in Jane Johnson's Eidolon trilogy is a young girl selkie called She Who Swims the Silver Path of The Moon (Silver for short) who becomes close with the main hero, Ben Arnold, when he rescues her from the evil Doddman's pet shop. *In the fifth book of The Last Apprentice series, the protagonist is forced to separate a beautiful selkie from her ageing husband. In the series, selkies age very slowly, and are considered bad luck or are taught to be prostitutes by the women. *The Folk Keeper, a novel by Franny Billingsley also uses this myth powerfully. *At least one tale about selkies is included in Scottish Folk Tales by Ruth Manning-Sanders. *Terri Farley, known for her books about horses that are written for children, broke from that style in 2005 to write Seven Tears into the Sea, a modern and slightly different selkie tale for teenagers. It is a teen romance novel following the story of a young girl who returns to her hometown in search of a selkie she encountered seven years earlier. *In science-fiction the Petaybee Series by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough employs the selkie myth in a futuristic setting. *In the first book of the Guardians of the Flame fantasy novel series by Joel Rosenberg, "The Sleeping Dragon", selkies are shown to be enslaved by the authorities of Pandathaway and forced to propel her military guardships through the heavily trapped harbor bay. *A. E. van Vogt's novel The Silkie imagines a race of creatures who can change between aquatic, human, and space-traveling forms. *Selkies also appear as one of many varieties of "changed" human in Ken MacLeod's Engines of Light trilogy. *In the third in the Council Wars series by John Ringo, Against the Tide, selkies are used with tongue-in-cheek humour, referring to the real-life US Navy SEALs in a fantasy setting. In the book, selkies performed commando-style beach infiltrations highly reminiscent of how SEALs are often portrayed in popular media. *Mercedes Lackey's novel The Serpent's Shadow features a group of selkies in a cameo as benign water fey creatures. Her eighth book in the Elemental Masters series, Home From the Sea, features a Selkie clan prominently, but are referred to by the old Scots name of Selch. *British fantasy author Susan Cooper has written both a picture book and a novel featuring selkies. The picture book, Selkie Girl, recounts a traditional selkie legend from Ireland. The novel, Seaward, features characters who turn out to be selkies. *In the first Meredith Gentry novel, A Kiss of Shadows, by Laurell K. Hamilton, a selkie named Roane Finn is the lover of Merry Gentry, who is a part human part fey princess who is hiding in Los Angeles in self-imposed exile from the Unseelie Kingdom due to political plots against her. Merry and Roane are both paranormal detectives working for the Grey Detective Agency. Roane had been trapped in human form when a fisherman had found his seal skin and burned it. When the latent magic in Merry is awakened, it first manifests itself by miraculously regenerating Roane's shape shifting ability. He immediately returns to his life in the sea for which he had been pining. *George Mackay Brown's novel Beside the Ocean of Time also involves a young man falling love with a Selkie, and the hiding of her sealskin to keep her from returning to the sea. *In 1998, American author Christina Dodd published a romance novel titled A Well Favored Gentleman about Ian Fairchild. His character made his first appearance in the first book of the Well Pleasured series, A Well Pleasured Lady (1997). Ian is the son of a selkie and has powers due to that legacy. *In Anne Bishop's Tir Alainne trilogy selkies are a member of the Fae race who must help witches avoid the mass murdering black inquisitors to stay alive. *Juliet Marillier wrote several trilogies, mixing folklore with history. In Child of the Prophecy (2001) Darragh is turned into a selkie by the Fae, while Watcher in Foxmask (2003) is a descendant of a selkie mother and a human father. *Mollie Hunter's novel, A Stranger Came Ashore, has a character who turns out to be the Great Selkie, lord of all the other selkies. *Robert Holdstock's novel Merlin's Wood, contains a fantasy short story, The Silvering, in which the human protagonist is transformed into a selkie. *The Torchwood comic Captain Jack and the Selkie features a Selkie. *In 1982 David Bischoff and Charles Sheffield wrote the novel The Selkie, a modern science-fiction treatment of the selkie legend involving a male selkie and the wife of a scientist. *In the last of the five short stories in the anthology Love Is Hell titled "Love Struck" by Melissa Marr a teenage girl walking along a beach accidentally steps upon a pelt of a selchie. The selchie falls in love the girl but at first she doesn't return his love. The girl must ultimately make the decision to free the selchie because if his increasing longing for the sea or to keep close the selkie she now loves. *The Catherynne M. Valente book The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden includes a story of a female satyr who acquires a male selkie's skin, and then acquires the selkie as a lover. *The Star Trek: Titan novels include a Selkie character, Aili Lavena, who was a former lover of Captain William Riker. *Selkies, and their home-world of Pacifica, are key in the 2009 novel Star Trek The Next Generation: Losing the Peace *Sea Change, by Aimee Friedman is about a girl who comes to Selkie Island during the summer after a drama-filled year. She meets Leo, who is a selkie. *In the 2009 novel Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler, the main character, Jane True, is the adult child of a selkie and a human man. *In Patricia McKillip's 2000 novel The Tower at Stony Wood, a character is revealed to be of selkie origin when she regains her former shape by donning the seal suit she has made. *Selkies, Roane, and other similar creatures play varying roles in Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels. *In the book series The Companions Quartet by Julia Golding, Selkies feature in the first book, as part of the search for the Universal. They are one of the creatures in the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures. *In Kiersten White's Supernaturally and Endlessly entries in her Paranormalcy trilogy, there are selkies named Kari and Donna who eat food at a diner and drive a car in their human forms. *Sea Hearts/The Brides of Rollrock Island a young adult novel by Margo Lanagan has a witch cut beautiful women out of seals to be wives for the island men. *Appearing in 2017's anthology of the winning entries from the yearly science fiction and fantasy contest Writers of the Future (Volume 33), Andrew L. Roberts' short story "Tears for Shülna" tells the tale of man and a selkie, once in love but long separated, who reunite at the end of his life. *James A. Hetley's contemporary fantasy books Dragon's Eye and Dragon's Teeth centers on the Morgan family of Stonefort, Maine - present-day Americans who are secretly Selkies, able to turn themselves into seals at will (and making extensive use of that ability in their fighting with various other characters). *Selkie are monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. They resemble seals with human-like hands and facial features, who have the ability to transform into humans. *The Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series features Selkies as a playable race. They usually have blue-green hair and are depicted as tribal, seagoing brigands. One Selkie character states, "We Selkies came from the sea, and to the sea we must one day return." *In the collectable card game Magic: The Gathering there are three cards in the Eventide set of the Shadowmoor block with the name selkie in them. They are classified as a merfolk, are all green/blue hybrid-mana creatures, and pictured as half seal, half human. The quote for the card Wistful Selkie says, "Selkies call to a sea they never swam, in a tongue they never spoke, with a song they never learned." The other two cards are Selkie Hedge-mage and Cold-Eyed Selkie. *The game Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic writers may have derived their race of aquatic peoples, the Selkath, from the Selkie legends. *The 1994 John Sayles movie The Secret of Roan Inish tells the story of a family descended from selkies. It is based on the novel The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry by Rosalie K. Fry. *In 2000, the Australian film titled Selkie, starring Shimon Moore of the Australian rock band, Sick Puppies, depicted a young teenage male moving to a coastal town with his family and after he starts growing webbing between his fingers, having dreams of the water in the bathtub and becoming a seal after diving into the sea to save a friend, he learns that he is a Selkie. The majority of the film depicts him coming to terms with his identity and even attempting to give up his Selkie powers at which point he accepts them. The film was shot at Port Noarlunga Jetty. *2010, Colin Farrell plays fisherman "Syracuse" in the movie Ondine (the name of the main character played by Alicja Bachleda, meaning "from the sea"); Ondine is believed to be a Selkie and the film explores Selkie mythology. *Tomm Moore, director of The Secret of Kells, created the animated movie Song of the Sea. The film features a young girl named Saoirse who discovers she is a selkie, and along with her human brother Ben, must recover her seal coat and find her voice, to save herself and all the Faerie folk of Ireland. *In an episode of Catscratch, the banshee that was haunting the Highland Quid Clan was, in fact, a selkie (called a "seal woman" in the show) under a curse. Gordon freed the selkie by vocalising in high tones and pitches. *In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in which the movie being riffed on was The Space Children, Mike comments, "There's a Selkie caught in the oil slick." *"Fae Gone Wild", an episode of Canadian drama Lost Girl, features numerous Selkie as characters. *The Netflix children's series Puffin Rock features a seal character named Silky. *"Baby... Seal... Thingy", an episode of Canadian animated series Wishfart has the three main characters raising a selkie. Галерея Шелки1.jpg Шелки2.jpg Шелки3.png Шелки4.jpg Шелки5.jpg Категория:Мифологические существа Категория:Гуманоиды Категория:Оборотни Категория:Химеры Категория:Европейская мифология Категория:Ирландская мифология Категория:Шотландская мифология Категория:Кельтская мифология Категория:Исландская мифология Категория:Духи Категория:Русалки